The west coast - The Rough Guide to Iceland - page 156

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING

Bjarg Dalbraut 2 T 434 1644, E [e-mail]. A
simple guesthouse in the centre of the village with j ust seve n
rooms sharing facilities. Breakfast is an extra 2000kr. 7500kr
Campsite Vesturbraut T 430 4700. Located beside the
main road near the junction with Miðbraut and (unusually
for Iceland) surrounded by trees; pit ches are separated by
low hedges. Closed Sept to mid-May. 1000kr
Leifsbúð Búðarbraut 1 T 434 1441. The café at
the tourist office and museum serves up light meals

such as soups and sandwiches for 800kr, and has a dish
of the day - usually fish - for 1500kr. Daily June-Aug
11.30am-6pm.
Villa Pizza Dalbraut 2 T 434 1644. Attached to Bjarg
guesthouse, this is the only restaurant in town, serving a
variety of pizzas and burgers for around 1000-1500kr, plus
a couple of meat and fish dishes at around 2500kr. Daily
11am-10pm.

Eiríksstaðir
June-Aug daily 9am-6pm • 1000kr • T 434 1118, W leif.is
The country which is called Greenland was discovered and settled from Iceland. Eirík the Red was the name of a man
from Breiðafjörður who went out there and took possession of land in the place which has since been called Eiríksfjörður.
He named the country Greenland and said it would make people want to go there if the country had a good name.
Extract from Book of the Icelanders by Ari the Learned (1067-1148).

3

Twenty kilometres southeast of Búðardalur and reached by Route 586 (8km from the
junction with Route 60) into Haukadalur valley, the former farm of Eiríksstaðir is one
of the most historically significant locations in Iceland. This was the starting point for
all westward expansion by the Vikings, first to Greenland and later to the shores of
North America. Following a couple of earlier failed archaeological digs, a third attempt
was made between 1997 and 2000 to excavate this site, which experts believe to be the
most likely home of Eiríkur Þorvaldsson, better known as Eirík the Red and father of
Leifur , who became the first European to set foot in North America (see box below).
During the dig archeologists found the remnants of a 50-square-metre hall dated to
890-980 AD, and, although no timber was unearthed, they did come across doorways,
clearly marked out with stone paving.
An evocative reconstruction of Eiríkur's original longhouse now stands in front of the
ruins and is a must for anyone interested in the Viking period. Its turf walls, 12m long

THE VIKINGS, GREENLAND AND NORTH AMERICA
Although Icelanders don't like to admit it, Eirík the Red and his father were actually Norwegian.
According to the Book of Settlements, Landnámabók , they left Norway to settle in the
Hornstrandir region of the West Fjords, where they lived until Eirík's father died. It's believed that
Eirík moved to Haukadalur from Drangar in Hornstrandir after marrying Þjóðhildur, whose
parents already lived at nearby Vatn in Haukadalur. However, he was an unruly man, and, after
getting into a row and murdering several of his neighbours, he was driven out of the valley
having lived there for ten to twenty years. Eirík then set up home on Suðurey (part of Brokey) and
Öxney, two islands east of Stykkishólmur in Breiðafjörður, where he once again fell out with his
neighbours who, after further violence, was outlawed once again - it was then, with a ship full of
friends, that he set sail, charting a course south of Snæfellsnes, for new land and adventure. He
eventually discovered land in 985 and, according to the sagas, promptly named it Greenland ,
“because it would encourage people to go there if the land had a good name”. He settled at
Brattahlíð in a fjord he named after himself, Eiríksfjörður, near present day Narsarsuaq. No doubt
inspired by his father, Leifur set out to the west from his new home, Greenland, first reaching
barren, rocky land that he named Helluland (Ba n Island), from where he continued south to an
area of flat wooded land he named Markland (Labrador), in 1000 AD. After another two days at
sea he reached more land, where, the sagas have us believe, grapes grew in abundance. Leifur
named this land Vínland , which some experts believe could mean “Wineland”. However, since
two days' sailing from Labrador would only take him as far south as current-day New England,
not exactly known for its wines, speculation remains as to where Viking Vínland is.